What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Easter?
I imagine for a large percentage of the population, it’s chocolate – maybe closely followed by hot cross buns and long weekend and for those of us who are on a weight loss or healthy eating journey, it’s one of the most challenging times of year.
I was doing a bit of research and discovered that it’s predicted that in the UK alone, we’ll spend around £415 million on chocolate at Easter and consume 80-90 million chocolate eggs and 20 million packs of hot cross buns – that’s a whole load of chocolate and buns in 4 days! Throw in the long weekend, the (finger’s crossed) nicer weather, the school holidays and no wonder a lot of people struggle at this time of year.
I thought I’d share a few tips and strategies to help you through this time of year and to reassure you that although it may be a challenge, it certainly doesn’t have to get in the way of your weight loss goals.
1
Easter happens every year
One thing you can be absolutely certain of, Easter happens once a year – every year. You need to come up with a plan to get through it, enjoy it and just get back to your healthy eating and weight loss habits.
Think back to previous Easters – How did you handle them? How did you feel afterwards? Did you let Easter throw you off track for a week / two weeks / even longer? We can learn a lot from our own experiences and from that, make changes to how we approach them in the future.
2
Make some plans in advance
Planning is probably one of my most used phrases when it comes to weight loss and Easter is absolutely no different! Whether you’re at home, going on holiday, spending time visiting family, going on day trips – having a think through your weekend in advance and make some plans around whatever you have going on.
Things like – what meals are you in control of? Can you prepare anything in advance? Can you take things with you?
3
Decide on your Easter Eating Strategy
Let me say right away at this point, there is no right or wrong answer to this and it’s completely your choice. I wanted to pull together a few tips which may help and also offer complete reassurance that whatever you decide to do, the most important thing is that you enjoy your Easter without any guilt, without the negative voice in the back of your head telling you that you shouldn’t be eating or drinking that if you want to!
Stick to your normal healthy eating / weight loss plan
Just because it’s Easter, it’s absolutely ok if you choose to stay on track with whatever your normal eating pattern is – what you eat and drink is absolutely your choice and you don’t have to break your routine just because it’s Easter
Eat and drink whatever you fancy
There are two key things I need to mention if you do decide to follow this strategy and just forget about your weight loss or weight maintenance over Easter:
- You will gain weight
- You absolutely should not feel guilt about doing so
Guilt is one of the most dangerous emotions out there and can cause so much more worse damage to your long term weight loss goals than Easter itself!
If you accept that you are going to gain weight, tell yourself it’s ok and that as soon as Easter is over, you’ll get yourself back on track then you aren’t ruining the memories of a lovely long weekend and any weight gained can be lost very quickly!
Take a flexible approach
This is my personal favourite strategy and the one I use the most for events such as Easter, Christmas, holidays, birthdays etc and this basically involves sticking to my normal healthy eating but deciding in advance on the thing I want to enjoy the most – so it may be a hot cross bun for breakfast on Good Friday, a dessert after dinner on Easter Sunday but around that, I’m going to stick to my normal food choices and look forward to the enjoying the thing I’ve allocated for that day.
There’s no strict rules but it’s just about being mindful about your choices and being prepared to say no to something so that you can have something else that you’d really love to eat or drink instead.
4
Don't write off the whole day (or week!)
I’ve done it myself too many times to mention, but as soon as I’ve eaten something that I normally don’t or eaten more of something like chocolate than I intended, it’s like a switch was flicked in my brain saying ‘oh well, you’ve ruined the day now, you may as well keep eating’ and then proceeded to devour everything in sight. A bit of extra chocolate really doesn’t have to signify a free for all in the kitchen. A tool I like to use is imagine one of naturally slim / no food issue friends and how they would react in the same situation – they’d enjoy the chocolate they ate and then think no more about it, they certainly wouldn’t go through the inner dialogue of guilt / loathing / sabotage that a lot of us do.
5
Don't deny yourself
Putting a self imposed ban on yourself on certain food items can create a whole load of problems! If you’re going to be surrounded by chocolate and that’s your temptation, allow yourself to have a bit – sit and enjoy it and take your time to saviour it – denying yourself can just build cravings which if you succumb to, can end in eating a lot more and a feeling of being out of control
6
Quality over quantity
What is it that you really love? It may be a hot cross bun, it may be a nice glass of wine with dinner, it may be a creme egg – have a think in advance of what it is that you get most enjoyment from and then plan that into your weekend.
A great quote I now live by is “You can have anything but not everything” – it’s about balance and enjoying the thing that you really want.
7
Make Easter about fun not just food
Whilst food is such a key part of so many traditions and celebrations, there’s lots of other ways to enjoy the weekend – are there non-food related activities you can do (painting hard boiled eggs was one thing we used to do as kids), getting out and going on walks or having fun outside with the family not only keeps you away from the chocolate but is also great for getting some exercise in too.
8
Ask loved ones for their support
One thing I did at the start of my weight loss journey was to tell all my friends and family about how important my weight loss and fitness goals were to me and asked them not to buy me any temptations for birthdays, Christmas and Easter. Everyone was really supportive and encouraged me and therefore I wasn’t presented with loads of chocolates etc. That’s not to say that I didn’t receive them (we actually got given a huge box of chocolates recently from one of our neighbours as a thank you) but the amount drastically reduced and if I do want an Easter Egg, I’ll buy it for myself as a conscious decision rather than having one in the house calling my name to eat it!
9
Set a 'cut off' date
Whether you decide to eat and drink whatever you fancy or take a more flexible approach, a top tip that I recommend to all of my weight loss clients is to decide in advance a ‘cut off’ day / meal. This is a firm commitment you are making to yourself that whatever happens over Easter, you are returning to your normal healthy eating at a specific time.
10
Bin the guilt
Whether you make a plan of how to approach Easter and things don’t go according to your plans or whether your plan is the ‘eat and drink whatever I want’ approach, the one thing that is not invited to your Easter festivities and certainly not allowed in your home after Easter is over is guilt!!!
Whatever happens in terms of your weight loss or healthy eating plan, please don’t let negative feelings over what you did or did not eat ruin what is a special time with your family.
There will always be things that don’t go according to plan, simply accept them and do the best you can in that situation.
As a weight loss coach, I love helping people discover the best ways to reach their individual goals – from working on their mindsets and habits to help with nutrition and healthy eating advice and recipes. If you would like to find out more about my 1-2-1 coaching programme or how I can help you, please do get in touch.
Email me or phone/message: 07834 442607
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